Higashino Wins X Games Gold

By Cycle News Staff | 6/29/2012 10:58 AM

Monster Energy-backed Taka Higashino won his first-ever X Games gold medal last night at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, the Japanese rider taking Moto X Freestyle with his "Rock Solid Backflip."

Higashino posted a 93.33 for his first two runs and the score held as he beat out Kiwi Levi Sherwood and Javier Villegas, the Chilean rider beating topping Nate Adams in a tiebreaker.

"It's too exciting," Higashino said. "It's like a dream; it's like it's not true. This is my dream. It's crazy! I've been working hard every day for five years, thinking, 'I wish, I wish, I wish' and I've spent all of my life working on this X Games dream. It was all about that Rock Solid for me. After landing that I don't even remember anything else from my run."